Prevalence of abomasal lesions in Danish Holstein cows at the time of slaughter

摘要

Abomasal lesions in cattle are challenging to diagnosebecause the clinical signs are often subtle andnonspecific. An increasing number of studies suggeststhat abomasal lesions are commonly found in cattle ofall ages, but the number of recent prevalence studiesin dairy cows is limited. The main objective of thisstudy was to estimate the prevalence of abomasal lesionsin a population of Danish Holstein dairy cattlein Denmark. An abattoir survey of 1,327 dairy cowsapparently suitable for slaughter was performed in 2016and 2017. Abomasal lesions are usually classified usinga standardized protocol with the following types:abomasal ulcer type Ⅰ: erosions and nonperforatingulcers; type Ⅱ: ulcers with arterial bleeding; type Ⅲ:perforating ulcer with localized peritonitis; and typeIV: perforating ulcer with diffuse peritonitis. A furthersubdivision of the nonperforating abomasal ulcers typeI were classified as subtype Ia: erosions; subtype Ib:small ulcers with localized hemorrhage; subtype Ic:ulcers with a crater-like appearance; and subtype Id:retention of the mucosa due to tissue loss with eitherradial wrinkles converging at a central point or perforationsof the spiral folds. Type I abomasal lesions werefound in 84% of the examined cows. No ulcers witharterial bleeding (type Ⅱ) or perforating ulcers withdiffuse peritonitis (type Ⅳ) were found, but one perforatingabomasal ulcer (type Ⅲ) was observed. Thetotal number of lesions found was 7,418 and when thelesion subtypes were evaluated individually the majorityof subtypes Ia and Ic were found in the pyloric area(85 and 94%, respectively), whereas lesion subtypesIb and Id dominated the fundus/corpus area (71 and67%, respectively). When considering lesion subtypesaccording to parity, there was a high prevalence of subtypeIb across the 3 groups of parity (51, 58, and 55%for parity 1, 2, and ≥3, respectively). The prevalenceof lesion subtype Id seemed to increase with increasingparity, and the prevalence of lesion subtype Ia seemedto decrease with increasing parity. The prevalence ofabomasal lesions was higher than that shown in similarstudies of cattle at the time of slaughter. However,the expectedly most painful cases were rare, with onlyone perforating and no arterial bleeding ulcers found.The etiology of the different subtype I lesions is stillunknown, and further investigations are needed to establishthe possible influence these lesions might haveon welfare and production.